


Greek, Jedi, and a little Pig Latin

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Family, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 02:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5399060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Holding hands, sun beaming down on our faces.  It'll be just like when we were dating.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Greek, Jedi, and a little Pig Latin

**Author's Note:**

> It seems every time I write a family fic, I follow it with another one. The Barson kids love my undivided attention.

“Good afternoon, Counselor.” Mike Dodds extended his hand as Rafael walked into the 16th Precinct squad room.

“Sergeant Dodds, it’s good to see you. Is she in?”

“She just finished up on a phone call. It’s been a bit of a day, you'll probably bring a smile to her face.”

“Always.” Rafael grinned and walked over to the Lieutenant’s office. He knocked on the door, Liv told him to come in. “Hey there.”

“Hey!” she did smile; her entire face glowed. “What are you doing here?”

“I had a meeting late this morning after my class. Afterward, I walked around a little and thought that today was the perfect day for a sidebar with my favorite cop.”

Liv could definitely eat. She had breakfast with the kids this morning before the school bus since it was Rafael’s early morning at City College. Then it was straight to the precinct and straight to work. SVU was a revolving door of cases. Her squad was out in the field working hard. As much as she hated it, Liv was in the office doing paperwork. 

She never envied Donald Cragen. When he was the captain he made it seem so effortless. He did everything that needed to be done and 95% of the time managed to keep his cop kids from going too far off the rails. She was a good leader, had no doubts about that, but her heart would always be in the field. Even now, with the Lieutenant shield and the family at home, she wanted to be out there working as much as she could. It wasn’t often possible.

“Where are you taking me?” Liv took off her glasses and stood up from the chair. She walked into her husband’s arms, giving him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“I thought Greek would be good. It’s just a few blocks from the precinct, you wouldn’t be far if you needed to come back for any reason.”

“You know…” she toyed with his tie. It was purple with black polka dots. “If you hadn’t dragged me to Brooklyn all those years ago we could go home. I could do such dirty things to you right now; our house is empty.”

“Hold those thoughts for later this evening, Mrs. Barba.”

“I'm probably going to be too tired later this evening.”

“We should go away for a long weekend soon.” Rafael pushed a stray hair behind Liv’s ear. “Half day Friday, half day Monday…just the two of us. I know Trevor would keep the kids and we deserve it.”

“Trevor with his two kids and our three?” she asked. “Are you trying to make his hair go gray even faster?”

“It’s a good look for him. We should do it; let's do it.”

“If you lead, Counselor, I'm gonna follow. I love you.”

“I love you too. So lunch?”

“Absolutely.” Liv replied. “Do I need my jacket?”

“No, it’s so gorgeous outside. I think we could both use a nice walk.”

“Holding hands, sun beaming down on our faces. It'll be just like when we were dating.”

“We hardly ever held hands when we were dating.” Rafael smiled. “We always worried that Dodds or Abraham was lurking around some corner. I think I made up pretty well for lost time though.”

“You absolutely did.” Liv nodded. “And then some.”

***

“I've been doing some research.” Rafael said. He sipped his beer and had more of his Greek baked chicken and mashed potatoes. It was one of his favorite meals at this place.

“On what?” Liv asked. She had a Plaka plate, which was skewered pork over seasoned rice.

“Dogs. I know we haven’t made an official decision but the kids are itching about it. Turns out if we don’t go for a mutt, which would be fine, a German shepherd might be the best choice.”

“Seriously?”

“They’re loyal, smart, susceptible to good training, and really good for families. As long as we can have someone take him to the dog park during the afternoon while we’re at work it’ll be good. I didn’t want to go the breeder route, so many rescue dogs need good homes. I'm sure we’d be able to find a good German shepherd.”

“You really want to get the kids a German shepherd?” Liv asked.

“I want a German Shepherd for the family. The kids will get to enjoy every minute of it. Pets teach children responsibility. They teach them unconditional love and even hard lessons like sickness and death.”

“So do gerbils you know.”

“Liv…”

“You're adorable when you're passionate.” She said.

“So do you think we should get a dog?” Rafael asked.

“I think you and I should check some of the shelters before saying anything to the kids. We’ll look at mutts but at German shepherds too.”

“Great.”

“You're excited.”

“I can admit to being a little excited. There's something else I should run by you.”

“Rafael Barba, you’ve got a lot going on today. What's up?”

“I got a job offer this morning. After my classes, I went over to Peña, Taylor, and Ross. They want me to come aboard and head their immigration team.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you had a job interview this morning?” Liv asked.

“Well I didn’t exactly. Kurt Ross’ brother is the Ross on the letterhead. Kurt and I went to Harvard together. I'm sure Dave remembered I was Cuban and that I was an attorney. So Kurt gave me a call day before yesterday.”

“Immigration law is something different.”

“It certainly is. But I've done the 60 hours work weeks and I'm never going back. I want to be home with my wife and kids…well mostly my kids since my wife works too much.”

“Watch it, Mister.”

“They want me to be the face, the strength behind their work. My name still carries some weight in this town. So I would work 25-30 hours a week and could still do my classes at City College. Most nights I would still be home in time for dinner.”

Rafael had been teaching at City College for almost six years. He was a much-loved professor and truly enjoyed his job. There was less stress in this job than at the DA’s office. Still, Olivia knew how much he loved the law. 

It was only going to be a matter of time before he wandered back into it again. She didn’t intend to stop him but there was more to consider than in the early days of their marriage. Part time would probably be alright. With law though, was it ever really part time.

“Are you going to take it?” she asked.

“Not if you say no.” he replied.

“I get veto power?”

“You should see your face right now.” Rafael laughed. “You look like Lucia when she gets to pick the movie on movie night. It’s the face of absolute power.”

“I'm going to try to be a benevolent goddess.”

“I'm all ears, Lieutenant.” He rested his chin in the palm of his hand and looked at her.

“If you want to take the job then I say do it. But I reserve the right to pull you back if it starts to take away from family.”

“I'm going to leave Feerick at the end of the summer so that will give me more time. With proper planning this is doable. People do it all the time. I'm better at multi-tasking than most; I’m a Harvard graduate after all.”

“I have faith in you, husband.” Liv took her hand, sliding her fingers around his.

“And I love you very, very much, wife.”

***

“You cheated!” Lucia exclaimed as she pushed her sister’s red light saber out of the way and got up from the living room carpet. 

“No I did not!” Hope said.

“Uh huh. Cuz there is no way that Mace Window would ever get beat by Darth Vader.”

“Windu.” Noah said, his eyes looking over his comic book.

“That’s what I said, Noah.” Lucia was exasperated. “Darth Vader can't beat Mace Window. He's the best Jedi on the planet and Darth Vader has asthma.”

“He doesn’t have asthma!” Hope exclaimed. “He just breathes really loud cuz of his helmet. He has the Force!”

“Um, hello? So does Mace Window.”

“Windu.”

“Stop it, Noah!”

“Hey, hey guys, what's going on out here?” Rafael walked from his study into the living room. It was Friday evening so the kids were doing what they wanted. They would have pizza around seven and let the weekend vibe take over the house.

“Tell Hope that Darth Vader sucks.” Lucia said.

“No he doesn’t.” Hope said. “Mace Window sucks.”

“Impossible! He has a purple light saber.” Lucia held up her light saber. “He's the most awesome Jedi in all of…wherever Jedis come from. He's cooler than Yoga and Obi-wan, and Darth Vader too. Right, Daddy?”

“Your assessment of Mace Windu is mostly spot on.” Rafael nodded as he sat on the couch. “But we can never count out Darth Vader. He's a bad guy, and we probably shouldn’t root for him, but the Force is strong inside him. Yoda predicted as much when he was just a little boy, not much older than you two.”

“Still not as cool as purple light saber.” Lucia shook her head.

“But he could beat Mace Window, couldn’t he Daddy?”

Rafael wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t want to disappoint either one of his daughters, who were clearly on opposite sides of this subject. If Olivia was there she would have it solved in a minute flat plus time for hugs and kisses. He took a deep breath and smiled.

“All Jedi are awesome truthfully.” Rafael said. “It would be really hard to choose between Mace and Darth Vader. Both are powerful so you just never know.”

“I think you're being too fair, Daddy.” Lucia said.

“You're probably right. I don’t like my girls fighting, especially over fictional…”

“Dad!” Noah exclaimed. “Ixnay on the ictional-fay. They think its eal-ray.”

“What?” Rafael looked at him.

“Tell me you don’t speak Pig Latin.” Noah said.

“It’s not a real language.” His father shook his head. “I'm fluent in plenty of real languages, no offense.”

“Yeah Dad,” Noah grinned. “I already knew you were a nerd. None taken.”

“Pigs can talk?” Hope’s hazel eyes were wide. “Oh my god, I wanna learn how to talk to them. Noah, I wanna learn! Tell me how to talk to pigs.”

“If I teach you then how am I gonna say things you don’t understand?” Noah asked.

“I can't wait until I get big so I can tell littler kids I'm not gonna tell ‘em stuff.” Hope said.

“That almost made sense.” Noah smiled.

“How about you guys turn off the light sabers and head upstairs to wash up for dinner.” Rafael suggested.

“Where’s dinner, Daddy?” Lucia asked.

“Mom should be here soon with the pizza and probably some wings. Go on.”

“OK.”

As usual, the twins ran; they ran everywhere. Rafael looked at his son. Noah was reading a Squirrel Girl comic. He had always been a comic book fan. When he was first learning how to read, and struggling through it, Liv got him comic books. Noah took to them in ways he never could with Winnie the Pooh or Dr. Seuss. To this day he was still a big fan and probably always would be.

“Lucia and Hope have no idea that Jedi aren’t real.” Noah said. “You were about to call them fictional and that might’ve been a meltdown of Santa proportions.”

“I think they know that Jedi aren’t real.” Rafael said.

Noah just shook his head like the all-knowing 11 year old he was. He didn’t know when he was 6. Despite the serious nature of what his parents did for a living, there were certain fantasies that he was able to maintain for a good while. He knew there were bad people in the world who did bad things. He also believed in Jedi and that Superman lived in a place called Metropolis that he could never find on a map. For every baby tooth Noah lost there was money under his pillow the next morning and his abuelita always made sure he was extra nice so that Santa would leave gifts in his stocking and not coal.

“Darth Vader is cooler than Mace Windu.” Rafael said. “But only be a hair, and three original movies.”

“A little hair.” Noah conceded. “But the purple light saber is the coolest. He's the only Jedi in the entire galaxy that has one.”

“Agreed.” He stood up from the couch. “Mom should be home in about 15 minutes. Then we’ll have dinner.”

“Hey, Dad, have you guys had enough time to think about getting us a dog?”

“We’re leaning towards yes…but don’t tell your sisters. There is more talking to do.”

“Grownups talk a lot.” Noah said.

There were plenty of other things that Rafael and Olivia did but it would be a year or so before he had to have that talk with Noah. It should probably happen sooner. Rafael didn’t think he could handle that. If Noah thought the dog conversation took a lot of conferring between his parents, wait until he found out how long that would take.

***


End file.
